The Worm Ouroboros, Eric Rücker Eddison [epub ebook reader txt] 📗

so short

a space of time.”

 

“‘Tis well enough,” said Juss. “I’ll grant thee thou hast outrun mine

expectations of thee.”

 

“Next thou demandest why,” said Corund. “Suffice it for thee that the

King hath had advertisement of your farings into Impland and your

designs therein. For to bring these to nought am I come.”

 

“There was many firkins of wine drunk dry in Carcë,” said Hacmon, “and

many a noble person senseless and spewing on the ground ere morn for

pure delight, when cursed Goldry was made away. We were little minded

these healths should be proved vain at last.”

 

“Was that ere thou rodest from Permio?” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “The

merry god wrought of our side that night, if my memory cheat not.”

 

“Thou demandest last,” said Corund, “my Lord Juss, by what right I bar

your passage eastaway. Know, therefore, that not of mine own self

speak I unto you, but as vicar in wide-fronted Impland of our Lord

Gorice XII., King of Kings, most glorious and most great. There

remaineth no way out for you from this place save into the rigour of

mine hands. Therefore let us, according to the nature of great men,

agree to honourable conditions. And this is mine offer, O Juss. Yield

up this burg of Eshgrar Ogo, and therewith thy sealed word in a

writing acknowledging our Lord the King to be King of Demonland and

all ye his quiet and obedient subjects, even as we be. And I will

swear unto you of my part, and in the name of our Lord the King, and

give you hostages thereto, that ye shall depart in peace whither you

list with all love and safety.”

 

The Lord Juss scowled fiercely on him. “O Corund,” he said, “as little

as we do understand the senseless wind, so little we understand thy

word. Oft enow bath gray silver been in the fire betwixt us and you

Witchlanders; for the house of Gorice fared ever like the foul toad,

that may not endure to smell the sweet savour of the vine when it

flourisheth. So for this time we will abide in this hold, and

withstand your most grievous attempts.”

 

“With free honesty and open heart,” said Corund, “I made thee this

offer; which if thou refuse I am not thy lackey to renew it.”

 

Gro said, “It is writ and sealed, and wanteth but thy signmanual, my

Lord Juss,” and with the word he made sign to Philpritz Faz that went

to Lord Juss with a parchment. Juss put the parchment by, saying, “No

more: ye are answered,” and he was turning on his heel when Philpritz,

louting forward suddenly, gave him a great yerk beneath the ribs with

a dagger slipped from his sleeve. But Juss wore a privy coat that

turned the dagger. Howbeit with the greatness of that stroke he

staggered aback.

 

Now Spitfire clapped hand to sword, and the other Demons with him, but

Juss loudly shouted that they should not be trucebreakers but know

first what Corund would do. And Corund said, “Dost hear me, Juss? I

had neither hand nor part in this.”

 

Brandoch Daha drew up his lip and said, “This is nought but what was

to be looked for. It is a wonder, O Juss, that thou shouldst hold out

to such mucky dogs a hand without a whip in it.”

 

“Such strokes come home or miss merely,” said Gro softly in Corund’s

ear, and he hugged himself beneath his cloak, looking with furtive

amusement on the Demons. But Corund with a face red in anger said, “It

is thine answer, O Juss?” And when Juss said, “It is our answer, O

Corund,” Corund said violently, “Then red war I give you; and this

withal to testify our honour.” And he let lay hands on Philpritz Faz

and with his own hand hacked the head from his body before the eyes of

both their armies. Then in a great voice he said, “As bloodily as I

have revenged the honour of Witchland on this Philpritz, so will I

revenge it on all of you or ever I draw off mine armies from these

lakes of Ogo Morveo.”

 

So the Demons went up into the burg, and Gro and Corund home to their

tents. “This was well thought on,” said Gro, “to flaunt the flag of

seeming honesty, and with the motion rid us of this fellow that

promised ever to grow thorns to make uneasy our seat in Impland.”

 

Corund answered him not a word.

 

In that same hour Corund marshalled his folk and assaulted Eshgrar

Ogo, placing those of Impland in the van. They prospered not at all.

Many a score lay slain without the walls that night; and the obscene

beasts from the desert feasted on their bodies by the light of the

moon.

 

Next morning the Lord Corund sent an herald and bade the Demons again

to a parley. And now he spake only to Brandoch Daha, bidding him

deliver up those brethren Juss and Spitfire, “And if thou wilt yield

them to my pleasure, then shalt thou and all thy people else depart in

peace without conditions.”

 

“An offer indeed,” said Lord Brandoch Daha; “if it be not in mockery.

Say it loud, that my folk may hear.”

 

Corund did so, and the Demons heard it from the walls of the burg.

 

Lord Brandoch Daha stood somewhat apart from Juss and Spitfire and

their guard. “Libel it me out,” he said. “For good as I now must deem

thy word, thine hand and seal must I have to show my followers ere

they consent with me in such a thing.”

 

“Write thou,” said Corund to Gro. “To write my name is all my

scholarship.” And Gro took forth his inkhorn and wrote in a great

fair hand this offer on a parchment. “The most fearfullest oaths thou

knowest,” said Corund; and Gro wrote them, whispering, “He mocketh us

only.” But Corund said, “No matter: ‘tis a chance worth our chancing,”

and slowly and with labour signed his name to the writing, and gave it

to Lord Brandoch Daha.

 

Brandoch Daha read it attentively, and tucked it in his bosom beneath

his byrny. “This,” he said, “shall be a keepsake for me of thee, my

Lord Corund. Reminding me,” and here his eyes grew terrible, “so long

as there surviveth a soul of you in Witchland, that I am still to

teach the world throughly what that man must abide that durst affront

me with such an offer.”

 

Corund answered him, “Thou art a dapper fellow. It is a wonder that

thou wilt strut in the tented field with all this womanish gear. Thy

shield: how many of these sparkling baubles thinkest thou I’d leave in

it were we once come to knocks?”

 

“I’ll tell thee,” answered Lord Brandoch Daha. “For every jewel that

bath been beat out of my shield in battle, never yet went Ito war that

I brought not home an hundredfold to set it fair again, from the

spoils I obtained from mine enemies. Now this will I bid thee, O

Corund, for thy scornful words: I will bid thee to single combat, here

and in this hour. Which if thou deny, then art thou an open and

apparent dastard.”

 

Corund chuckled in his beard, but his brow darkened somewhat. “I pray

what age dost thou take me of?” said he. “I bare a sword when thou was

yet in swaddling clothes. Behold mine armies, and what advantage I

hold upon you. Oh, my sword is enchanted, my lord: it will not out of

the scabbard.”

 

Brandoch Daha smiled disdainfully, and said to Spitfire, “Mark well, I

pray thee, this great lord of Witchland. How many true fingers hath a

Witch on his left hand?”

 

“As many as on his right,” said Spitfire.

 

“Good. And how many on both?”

 

“Two less than a deuce,” said Spitfire; “for they be false fazarts to

the fingers’ ends.”

 

“Very well answered,” said Lord Brandoch Daha.

 

“You’re pleasant,” Corund said. “But your fusty jibes move me not a

whit. It were a simple part indeed to take thine offer when all wise

counsels bid me use my power and crush you.”

 

“Thou’dst kill me soon with thy mouth,” said Brandoch Daha. “In sum,

thou art a brave man when it comes to roaring and swearing: a big

bubber of wine, as men say to drink drunk is an ordinary matter with

thee every day in the week; but I fear thou durst not fight.”

 

“Doth not thy nose swell at that?” said Spitfire.

 

But Corund shrugged his shoulders. “A footra for your baits!” he

answered. “I am scarce bounden to do such a kindness to you of

Demonland as lay down mine advantage and fight alone, against a

sworder. Your old foxes are seldom taken in springes.”

 

“I thought so,” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “Surely the frog will have

hair sooner than any of you Witchlanders shall dare to stand me.”

 

So ended the second parley before Eshgrar Ogo. The same day Corund

essayed again to storm the hold, and grievous was the battle and hard

put to it were they of Demonland to hold the walls. Yet in the end

were Corund’s men thrown back with great slaughter. And night fell,

and they returned to their tents.

 

“Mine invention,” said Gro, when on the next day they took counsel

together, “bath yet some contrivance in her purse which shall do us

good, if it fall but out to our mind. But I doubt much it will dislike

thee.”

 

“Well, say it out, and I’ll give thee my censure on’t,” said Corund.

 

Gro spake: “It bath been shown we may not have down this tree by

hewing above ground. Let’s dig about the roots. And first give them a

seven-night’s space for reckoning up their chances, that they may see

morning and evening from the burg thine armies set down to invest

them. Then, when their hopes are something sobered by that sight, and

want of action bath trained their minds to sad reflection, call them

to parley, going straight beneath the wall; and this time shalt thou

address thyself only to the common sort, offering them all generous

and free conditions thou canst think on. There’s little they can ask

that we’d not blithely grant them if they’ll but yield us up their

captains.”

 

“It mislikes me,” answered Corund. “Yet it may serve. But thou shalt

be my spokesman herein. For never yet went I cap in hand to ask favour

of the common muck o’ the world, nor I will not do it now.”

 

“O but thou must,” said Gro. “Of thee they will receive in good faith

what in me they would account but practice.”

 

“That’s true enough,” said Corund. “But I cannot stomach it. Withal, I

am too rough spoken.”

 

Gro smiled. “He that hath need of a dog,” he said, “calleth him ‘Sir

Dog.’ Come, come, I’ll school thee to it. Is it not a smaller thing

than months of tedious hardship in this frozen desert? Bethink thee

too what honour it were to thee to ride home to Carcë with Juss and

Spitfire and Brandoch Daha bounden in a string.”

 

Not without much persuasion was Corund won to this. Yet at the last he

consented. For seven days and seven nights his armies sat before the

burg without sign; and on the eighth day he bade the Demons to a

parley, and when that was granted went with his sons and twenty

men-at-arms up the great rib of rock between the lakes, and stood below

the east wall of the burg. Bitter chill